Portreath community works together to make a cleaner Cornwall

Joyce Duffin, Cornwall Council Portfolio Holder for Housing and Environment and Councillor for Mount Hawke and Portreath, organised a community litter pick last week in Portreath. Volunteers from Portreath gave up their time to clean up areas in the village and Clean Cornwall provided the volunteers with litter pick grabbers, high-vis vests, black bin bags and hoops and took the rubbish away afterwards. Approximately 30 volunteers of all ages filled 20 black bin bags with rubbish, showing how effective local action can be to improve the neighbourhood for the better.

Joyce said, “There were a couple of “hot spots” in the village that we wanted to clear up and, with the amount of volunteers we had, we could also litter pick other areas. I’d like to say a big “thank you” to the Portreath Arms for providing refreshments afterwards for the volunteers. It was great to see people of all ages volunteering, and we had a number of compliments from other members of the public who appreciated the community taking action to tidy up the village. Thank you to everyone who gave up their time. We are hoping to make it a regular occurrence.”

Clean Cornwall believe in a pretty simple idea. If people were encouraged to notice litter more so they can see the scale of the problem, and if they heard about how local people across Cornwall are trying to protect the places that matter to them from litter, then they’re much less likely to drop it.

If you want to help to keep Cornwall clean you can join in with existing community run litter picks in your area or organise your own, details can be found on the Clean Cornwall website. If you’re organising your own community litter pick, Clean Cornwall can help by providing you with equipment, advice and taking the rubbish away afterwards.